Self-talk in sport: New trends and directions.

The study of self-talk in sport has progressed significantly during the last decade. A new conceptualisation differentiating between organic and strategic self-talk, the further distinction of organic self-talk into spontaneous and goal-directed, and the need to adress interventions for self-regulation, in addition to those for performance enhancement, have enrinched the width of the research questions that have been studied. Furthermore, the quest for a comprehensive understaning of the mechanisms underlying the functioning of self-talk, led to the introduction of multi- and inter- disciplinary methods encompassing physiological and neural approaches. The present symposium is a fair reflection of the diverse interests among self-talk researchers. First, a meta-analysis will refresh accumulated evidence for the effectiveness of strategic self-talk interventions; second, a psychophysiological approach to the effectiveness of self-talk based on the activation of the autonomic nervous system, will bring us closer to peace with the physiologists; third, a qualitative investigation will shed light on vocality as a potential attribute regulating self-talk effectiveness; and finally, the first attempt to explore experimentally the effect of an educational self-talk intervention on performance and organic self-talk will conclude the presentations, hoping for a fruitful discussion to follow.